The present invention relates to a file recording device, a file reproducing device, a file editing device, a file recording method, a file reproducing method, a file editing method, a program of a file recording method, a program of a file reproducing method, a program of a file editing method, a recording medium recording a program of a file recording method, a recording medium recording a program of a file reproducing method, a recording medium recording a program of a file editing method, a recording medium, and can be applied to a videodisc device for example The present invention sets information necessary for reproducing a multiplexed stream, and information necessary for reproducing a stream making up this multiplexed stream to one of blocks serving as management information, and assigns this multiplexed stream to the track corresponding to the block serving as this management information, thereby recording a program stream and the like in a QT file or the like, and further enabling this to be processed.
Heretofore, a QuickTime (hereinafter, referred to as QT) file format has been widely known as a file format corresponding to multimedia. Here, the QT format is a file format produced as an enhancement function of OS (Operating System) for reproducing animation or the like without using special hardware, and is a multimedia file format of time base which can reproduce actual data in various formats such as animation, audio, still images, characters, and MIDI and the like synchronously on one time axis.
With a QT file, actual data such as these animation, still images, and audio and the like is put together into a block, and management information for managing this actual data is put together into a block separately from this actual data block. Hereinafter, such a block is referred to as an atom. Also, each of the atoms made up of such actual data and management information is further divided into blocks using a hierarchical structure, and as for actual data, each actual data is stored as media data and as an individual track, and with a QT file, the track of actual data serving as animation, audio, or characters is referred to as a video track, sound track (audio track), or text track.
On the other hand, as for an atom serving as management information, the track atom serving as the management information corresponding to the track of each actual data is formed for each actual data using a hierarchical structure, and with a QT file, a sample description atom is assigned to a track atom serving as middle-level hierarchical management information conforming to this hierarchical structure, and the type and content of the corresponding actual data can be recognized with this sample description atom. With the conventional QT file, the track serving as this management information has been arranged so as to be created under the condition that a single type of actual data is stored, and thus, with a sample description atom, only information regarding an elementary stream according to single sound and video has been described.
Thus, equipment, which cannot control all of the tracks regarding a QT file made up of multiple tracks, has been arranged so as to exclude this file from an object to be reproduced, or so as to reproduce the actual data assigned to each track within a reproducible range based on the track ID serving as an identifier set to each track. Thus, in this case, an arrangement has been made wherein a user cannot view and listen to this file at all, or views and listens to the reproducing state of the track selected by the track ID regardless of the content of the file. Accordingly, for example, with Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-179859, a method for setting priorities to tracks serving as actual data, and further reproducing the actual data within a reproducible range in accordance with these priorities has been proposed, and according to this method, even with equipment of which reproducing function is restricted, a file is arranged so as to be appropriately reproduced depending on the content of the file.
Now, in recent years, with satellite broadcasting and the like, various programs and so forth have been provided using a program stream conforming to the MPEG-2 system. Thus, it is conceived as convenient that even a stream in which the elementary streams of video and sound are multiplexed, such as a program stream conforming to the MPEG-2 system, can be recorded using the QT format, and accordingly, there are expectations that even a program stream and the like can be recorded using a QT file.
However, as described above, with the QT format, the track serving as management information is premised on a single type of actual data, so the actual data of a format in which video data and sound data are mixed such as the program stream conforming to the MPEG-2 system cannot be managed, and thus resulting in a problem wherein this type of multiplexed stream cannot be recorded in the QT format.
Moreover, thus the track serving as management information is premised on a single type of actual data, and accordingly, it is needless to say that even if the program stream conforming to the MPEG-2 system is recorded with the QT format, the priorities at the time of reproduction cannot be set to the multiple elementary streams making up this program stream. On the other hand, in some cases, sound data and the like using multiple channels are assigned even to the program stream conforming to the MPEG-2 system, as with the case in which multiple sound tracks are provided in a QT file.
Thus, even if the actual data in a format in which video data and sound data are mixed can be recorded with the QT format, the issue solved by the technique of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-179859 becomes a problem again. That is to say, in the event that sound data and the like using multiple channels are assigned, it becomes impossible to appropriately reproduce these depending on the content of the file.
Accordingly, there are expectations that with a stream in which video data and sound data are multiplexed can be recorded with a QT file, and even with equipment of which the function is limited, the elementary streams making up this multiplexed stream can be appropriately reproduced depending on the content of the file.
Also, with the program stream conforming to the MPEG-2 system, not only so-called closed GOP (Group of Pictures) but also open GOP are applied thereto in some cases. Here, closed GOP are in a form in which P pictures, the reference frames of B pictures, and fields are all set within the same GOP, and on the other hand, open GOP are in a form in which any of P pictures, the reference frames of B pictures, and fields are set within another GOP immediately before this GOP. Thus, processing needs to be changed at the time of reproduction depending on whether GOP to be applied is closed GOP or open GOP. Now, GOP is the processing units of encoding processing in which frames are set as units, for example, in the case of MPEG, the processing units are set to 15 frames.
On the other hand, even if actual data in a format in which video data and sound data are multiplexed can be recorded with the QT format, when determining closed GOP and open GOP at the time of reproduction, consequently determination cannot be made unless the actual data is reproduced, and also the description of the sequence header set in this actual data is referenced, and thus resulting in a problem in which the amount of processing at the time of reproduction extremely increases.
Accordingly, there are expectations for the stream to be in a form in which video data and sound data are mixed is arranged so as to be recorded using a QT file, and also even in the event of closed GOP and open GOP being mixed, the amount of the processing can be prevented effectively from increasing.